I Quit
by Wizleysnipes
Summary: What if Xander had quit years before, when they'd pushed him away one too many times. What happens when his present life has been crashed into by his past. This story will be very dark, so squeamish people better stop reading. (X,Other , B/X)
1. Prologue

Name: I Quit Prologue

Author: Michael Dunbar

Summary: What if Xander had quit years before, when they'd pushed him away one too many times. What happens when his present life has been crashed into by his past. This story will be very dark, so squeamish people better stop reading. (X,Other , B/X)

Buffy felt a sharp sting on her cheeks and she slowly opened her eyes, not that it did much use as she could barely see a foot in front of her face. It was pitch black, but not like night which her slayer enhanced senses had no problem with but it was like all light had been removed from the surrounding area.

She tried to move but found her wrist bound to a steel post that was buried into the ground beneath her back, she pulled with all of her enhanced strength and neither the chain nor the post gave an inch and she settled down and looked forward towards the darkness.

"Hello?" She said hoping to atleast gain some understanding of what had happened.

The last thing Buffy remembered was she was talking to Willow in the Cleveland School for Girls, she and her witch friend had been in Giles' office planning some day trips for all the slayer girls when suddenly the ground beneath them had seemed to give way and darkness had claimed her.

"Willow? " She tried again, hoping the witch was alive and nearby and then maybe they could try and sort the current situation out together.

"Willow's not feeling too well" A voice echoed back from the darkness, a voice she was sure she knew but couldn't quite place it "Having her magic removed will do that to a witch, she can't help you Buffy"

"Who are you?" She asked "Do you know who you are dealing with here?"

All Buffy heard in return was a chuckle, a very familiar chuckle and still her brain seemed unable to grasp the identity from her memories.

"Do i know who you are?" The voice replied "No, i just kidnapped a random girl that was in a school full of underage girls... Jeez, you should really go back to the blonde hair"

Buffy frowned under her recently dyed brunette bangs and tried to focus on the darkness, to see anything that could help her. No matter how hard she tried there was nothing, she saw nothing.

"Your probably wondering why you rslayer enhancements don't seem to be working" The voice asked and there was a slight echo around wherever they were "Well that's because currently you aren't a slayer. I removed it"

"Yea right, you can't just remove it. "Buffy replied back snarkily, sure of herself "Willow has tried to remove it from certain slayers that aren't exactly meant for the life and if she couldn't do it, then nobody can"

"Ha, you really think Willow is all knowing huh?" He murmured, she was atleast sure the voice was masculine in origin "You'd be surprised what you can do with a witch, a voodoo shaman and a buddhist elder"

"So what?" Buffy replied "You want to bag yourself a slayer? Have it on the old resume? I killed a slayer that i had to have her powers removed to beat, well good for you. What a challenge"

The voice just laughed in reply and she was sure she saw some movement to her right and she looked that way.

"If i wanted to bag a slayer i could have just killed you all at the school. It's not the most secure place on earth"

"You really think you could fight 78 slayers?" Buffy laughed "You're delusional, whatever you are"

"Oh i'm human" He replied "!00 percent bonafide human. I wouldn't even contemplate fighting 80 slayers"

"So stop the bravado act, thinking you could have taken them all out " Buffy fumed.

"I wouldn't have to fight. There's not a whole lot some well placed c4 charges can't beat. Your girls maybe fast but they can't outrun fire"

"like a wuss you mean"

"Maybe so" the voice responded "But i know my limits, you are one of the people that taught me them."

At last Buffy had some actionable intelligence. She apparently knew this person.

"Come on Buff, don't tell me you've forgotten what one of your ex best friends sounds like"

The light seemed to retreat from the right to reveal a figure and Buffy gasped. Sat in a small office chair turned backwards in a tartan long sleeved shirt and a Yankees baseball cap sat a person she had not seen since high school.

Xander Harris.

He smirked at her and tipped his cap off his head in her direction. He had aged but then they all had, but it was unmistakeable. He also had a black eye patch over his left eye and Buffy was pretty sure it wasn't a fashion accessory.

"Long time no see Buff"

He smiled. It was a smile she hadn't seen in over 8 years and it wasn't the same smile she remembered, it didn't reach his eyes. The Xander she had known, when he smiled his whole body showed evidence of it.

"Xander..." She whispered "What..."

"9 years, 7 months, 2 weeks and 15 hours" He replied as he looked up from the watch on his right wrist "Thats how long its been"

Buffy shook her head slightly to try and rid herself of some of the confusion and looked around the room she was in, now that some of the darkness had retreated it was obvious they were in some kind of basement. Wood lined everywall horizontally and she could see 1 door go out of the room to her left, it was the only exit she could see and there didn't seem to be any windows to the place.

"You know Xander" She said and brought her eyes to focus on the man "If you wanted to do a reunion, you could have just called"

He smiled again, a smile she was slowly learning to hate.

"funny" he replied "still got that razor sharp tongue i see, it'd be a real shame if someone would cut that out"

Xander slowly got up from his chair and reached down to a coat at his feet and removed a water bottle, taking a sip he walked towards her and sat down on the floor in front of her and crossed his legs. He leaned forward and pushed the bottle towards her mouth and she took a small sip before he removed the bottle and placed it on the floor, putting the cap back onto it.

He looked into her eyes.

"It really wouldn't have had to come down to this if you'd have just done your job" He said with a sigh "So many chances over the years and everytime, you've failed."

Buffy regarded him with a confusion in her eyes. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant but she was sure whatever it was, it ruined the man in front of her. He looked so tired, his one remaining eye weary with large bags under it like he hadn't slept in some considerable amount of time. He moved so sluggishly, like every muscle was aching within him. Occasionally he'd adjust the eyepatch and she could just make out some damaged skin beneath, showing evidence of irreparable damage.

"You look like shit" Buffy muttered through clenched teeth and wanted to immediately take it back.

The man in front of her seemed to flinch slightly at her harsh tone but then he just smirked again and grabbed the cap off the top of the water bottle.

Idly he began rolling it along his right hand fingers from pointer all the way to his little finger and then back again. He carried this on for a few minutes and then threw it up in the air and it landed precisely, specifically back onto the water bottle.

"100% human?" Buffy questioned with a nod towards the water bottle and doubt in her voice.

"Well" Xander replied "I've had some magical adjustments, i mean if i hadn't, then not sleeping for 6 months would have probably killed me and i couldn't let that happen before i finish this"

"And what exactly is this?" Buffy asked "I mean i know we didn't exactly part on the friendliest of terms but what the hell"

"Friendliest?" He responded with a chuckle"I'm pretty sure i called you a bitch"

"Yep, you did" Buffy nodded her head "And maybe i was been a bitch but even so i didn't think you'd still be holding a grudge against us"

Xander smiled and cocked his head to the side "You think this is revenge for you sidelining me? I mean sure at the time i was annoyed but i got over it. Once my parents moved to Los Angeles and i was in another high school there wasn't much left to forgive"

He removed his baseball cap and threw it to his right into what remained of the darkness in one of the corners and Buffy was sure she heard it hit something and that it had probably landed perfectly on a hook there.

So many years had passed since that fateful confrontation in the library. Xander had almost died again on patrol, one too many hits had seen him dazed and confused and he was sporting a concussion for days after. Buffy had managed to convince all of the others that they needed to remove him from the fight, for his own good and so Buffy herself could remain focused without having to save him again and again. At the time she was sure it had been the correct call and even now in hindsight, she wasn't sure she would do anything differently. Then a week later he had told them his father had gotten a job out of town and he'd be leaving Sunnydale. That was the last time she had seen him.

"So" Buffy asked and pulled at her chains again to no avail "If this isn't revenge, then what exactly is this?"

The man looked at her quizzically for a minute and then opened his mouth to reply.

"justice"


	2. Part 1

Name: I Quit Part 1

Author: Michael Dunbar

Summary: What if Xander had quit years before, when they'd pushed him away one too many times. What happens when his present life has been crashed into by his past. This story will be very dark, so squeamish people better stop reading. (X,Other , B/X)

Buffy looked at the man she once knew, he was aimlessly walking around the room he had her shackled up in. Occasionally she'd hear a mumble or catch something but for the most part it was incomprehensible to her. After telling her he wanted justice and she had asked what for, he'd just winked at her and smiled "You'll find out, just not right now"

He seemed to be messing with something on a worktop not far away, something wooden it looked like. Xander slipped something on his wrist and turned back to the slayer. Walking over he showed her the contraption that he'd strapped to his wrist.

"You like it? I designed it myself, about a year ago" Xander said "I was having problems taking vampires on, what with me been just human"

The device looked simple enough, it had various stakes stuck into a pouch below the wrist and 1 was loaded into what looked like a spring mounted firing device. Xander turned and fired a shot into the corner, one of the stakes from the pouch moved up and into firing position.

"It's still a work in progress" He said "It can fire pretty quickly, but i'd prefer it was quicker and i'm having issues with that... i'll figure it out, I always do"

He seemed so different from the boy she once knew, despite the fact that he had her shackled up, which at one point the merest suggestion of such would have made Buffy laugh. Xander was more confident, sure of himself and he looked ready to take on the world.

"You know magic has a price right" He said out of the blue and sat down on the floor "Every spell costs something or takes something from the caster"

Buffy looked at him confused, he definitely acted like he wasn't working with all cylinders. One topic into the next without any sort of context. Even then she was sure it was all an act for some reason, like he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Remember the re-ensouling spell for Angel?" He asked.

She glared at him "How could I forget that delightful memory"

"I was supposed to tell you Willow was performing it again but I didn't" Xander replied without missing a beat "I said kick his ass"

"Yea you did" Buffy growled in his direction and it made her even angrier when he just smiled back at her.

"I'm not sorry" Xander said idly and took a sip from his water bottle "I'd do the same thing again."

Buffy pulled at her restraints again to no avail, her wrists were beginning to burn from all the attempts and she stopped pulling and winced. She didn't know how long she had been here or how long she had even been unconscious before she got to this weird room but she just hoped that the school were looking for her. Even Willow without her magic, if she was to believe Xander, was a very capable person and would no doubt be working very hard to find her.

"So, as I was saying" Xander continued "Magic has a price that has to be paid. I mean for all the information and foresight that my spells have given me, including any physical enhancements it cost me my eye"

To illustrate his point Xander lifted up his eye patch to reveal a mound of scar tissue where his eye should be and Buffy almost threw up right there, she clenched her teeth however and refused to show any weakness to the man in front of her.

"The magic I cast or had cast for me, gives me the ability to see whatever I wish from whenever I wish" He took another drink from his water bottle and then placed it on the floor in front of his crossed legs. "I saw the spell to activate the slayers as if I was there. I even saw Willow going mental and almost destroying the world over the one she loved, now that I can sympathise with"

Xander smiled and pulled a picture from his pocket and placed it in front of Buffy's legs. She squinted and could just make out Xander and some woman. The woman in question was a gorgeous brunette and she had her arms wrapped around Xander and was smiling widely. They seemed to be very happy.

"Her name is Marie" Xander said "the love of my life. we were married 4 years ago"

Buffy looked into his eyes and could see from the way he glanced down at the picture that they were getting close to the whole reason they were even in this situation so she remained quiet. He'd gotten what she had always hoped for him, a marriage and a future. It was the sole reason she had pushed him out of the slaying because of all of them he stood a chance at something real.

"2 years ago" Xander said and a small tear slipped out of his one remaining eye, he quickly brushed it away and continued "i killed her"

Buffy gasped and looked at his face, for any signs of deceit. Not that she'd ever believe he'd lie about something like that but she had once known this man. The guy she had known could never be capable of something like that, she was sure of that.

_2 years ago,_Buffy thought, _That would make it right around the time of the activation spell, which makes all the topics with magic make sense._

Xander smiled at her "You figured it out?"

"The activation spell..." Buffy whispered.

"She was a slayer" He confirmed "Or at least she had the possibility of been one"

Xander stood up and left the picture in front of her before walking over to the one door on the far side of the room.

"I have to go run some errands. I'll be back" He said "I'll even bring you some donuts if you've behaved"

Buffy just growled in response and he smiled at her before disappearing through the door. She heard some kind of lock from the adjoining room and then the place was completely silent

_I really need to find a way out of this_

_maybe I can help, Willow's voice echoed back._

Buffy looked around the room, not spotting anybody and slammed her head back into the post in frustration.

_Great, now i'm losing my mind._

"I'm talking to you inside your head Buffy" Willow replied "Listen I don't have much time doing this, there's a limit. You need to tell us where you are"

"Us?" Buffy asked.

"The coven, I had to get there help... i've somehow lost my mojo."Willow responded sadly "I've no idea how. I remember the school shaking and then blackness, I woke up in my bed and I just knew it was gone. I can't even levitate a pencil any more"

"Oh..." Buffy replied, _so Xander hadn't been a blowhard and had told the trut_h.

"Xander?" Willow said in confusion "What about Xander?"

"listen, this is really confusing" Buffy responded "Xander took your magic away and he's got me locked up somewhere, i've no idea where and i'm tied to a post that's embedded in the ground."

"So what's the problem" Willow replied "snap it like a twig and get out of there"

Buffy growled in frustration "_He kinda also removed my mojo Will, otherwise i'd have already done that."_

"_look, I've got another 30 seconds of this"Willow said "I can't maintain this for much longer and for some reason we can't get a bead on you with a locator spell"_

"_That would be my fault"_ Another voice broke in, Xander's voice. Inside her head_ "Long time Will, how's the lesbian life treating you"_


End file.
